How Do You Make Panera Green Tea?

Panera doesn’t share a recipe for its green tea, so you can’t make the exact drink at home. You can get close, though, and we give a copycat version below. First, here’s what Panera actually sells.

What green tea does Panera have?

Panera’s nutrition guide, effective September 2, 2026, lists a Passion Papaya Iced Green Tea, a bottled version and a hot Honey Ginseng Green Tea. Menus change and vary by location, so check with your local café.

Drink	Size	Calories	Sugar	Caffeine
Passion Papaya Iced Green Tea	20 fl oz	140	36 g	0 mg
Passion Papaya Iced Green Tea	30 fl oz	220	54 g	0 mg
Drive-thru, with ice	20 fl oz	80	21 g	0 mg
Drive-thru, with ice	30 fl oz	120	29 g	0 mg
Bottled Passion Fruit Papaya Green Tea	500 ml	130	28 g	0 mg
Honey Ginseng Green Tea (hot)	16 fl oz	0	0 g	About 50 mg

Panera labels the drive-thru sizes “with ice”, and they list less sugar than the same cup sizes above. Recipes and sizes can change, so check Panera’s current guide before you order.

Does Panera green tea have caffeine?

It depends on which one you order.

• Passion Papaya Iced Green Tea: Panera lists 0 mg for every size, in its current nutrition guide.
• Honey Ginseng Green Tea (hot): Panera lists about 50 mg per 16 fl oz.

There’s one catch with the iced version. It’s sold as a green tea, and Panera calls its caffeine values approximate. Panera doesn’t explain how it arrives at 0 mg. If you need to avoid caffeine completely, ask your café, or choose the Blackberry Hibiscus Iced Tea, an herbal option also listed at 0 mg.

Don’t mix this up with Panera’s regular iced tea. Its 20 fl oz Unsweetened Iced Tea is listed at 120 mg of caffeine.

How do you make a copycat at home?

This is our homemade copycat, not Panera’s recipe. Panera doesn’t publish its amounts, and these are only a starting point. It won’t taste identical.

Makes one large glass, about 15 oz before ice.

• 2 green tea bags
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 cup papaya nectar
• 2 tablespoons passion fruit juice
• 1/2 cup cold water
• Ice

1. Heat the water until it’s just under a boil.
2. Steep the tea bags for 2 minutes, then remove them.
3. Stir in the sugar until it dissolves.
4. Add the papaya nectar, passion fruit juice and cold water.
5. Taste, adjust the sweetness and pour over ice.

Two bags keep the drink from tasting weak once the ice melts. The water and steep time follow brand advice: Bigelow suggests water just under a boil for green tea, and Twinings suggests 2 minutes.

Will a homemade version have caffeine?

Yes, unlike Panera’s listed 0 mg. Real brewed green tea has caffeine. Bigelow lists 25 to 50 mg per 8 oz cup for its green tea, and two bags will give you more than one.

For less caffeine, use decaf green tea. Bigelow lists 1 to 8 mg per cup for its decaf teas. Here’s how Bigelow’s decaf green tea is made.

Is Panera green tea healthy?

It’s better to think of it as a sweet drink. A 20 fl oz cup has 36 g of sugar on Panera’s guide. Harvard’s Nutrition Source reports the American Heart Association limits for added sugar as about 36 g a day for most men and 24 g for most women.

Panera’s guide lists total sugars rather than added sugars, so we can’t say how much of that is added. Our recipe’s tablespoon of sugar adds about 12 g, plus whatever is in the juice, so check those labels.

The evidence for green tea itself is limited, and it doesn’t carry over to sweetened flavored drinks. For a closer look at another popular one, see is AriZona green tea healthy.

For more store-bought teas, see our green tea brands guide.